Businessmen give $1,000 each to help DuBose get a kidneyAdelia Ladson
July 01, 2008 10:54 pm
— MOULTRIE — Nicholas DuBose, who has been championed by his co-workers in the quest for a kidney transplant, has now been championed by two local businessmen as well.
Cousins Lavon Stripling and Donald Dalton, who started and then sold ‘Twice the Ice’ ice vending business, have stepped in to help DuBose’s cause with $1,000 donations each.
“We felt like we should give something back,” said Dalton.
DuBose has had lupus since he was 15 and his kidneys stopped working about two years ago. He also has high blood pressure as an added complication. He has dialysis six days a week for two hours a day and has been on it for two years as of this month, he said. He is being added to a waiting list for a kidney. DuBose said he was told he would need $10,000 for medication, and the procedure would be done at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. However, he said, the wait for the kidney could be a couple of months or a couple of years.
“People are just not aware of the need for donors,” said Dalton.
Dalton knows a bit about the waiting: He celebrated his 16th year of living with a heart transplant this past Memorial Day. He said he had never realized the importance of being a donor until “it hit close to home.”
“I wouldn’t be here without it,” said Dalton.
Stripling said he signed up to become an organ donor after Dalton’s heart transplant and reiterated that he also had never thought about the importance of organ donors until it affected his family. Dalton added that Stripling was one of the most giving people who knew.
Dalton told DuBose that he would like to see him be a success and seemed very impressed by stories that were told to him by DuBose’s co-workers. Especially, the fact that he goes to work even in spite of his almost daily dialysis treatments, he said. Dalton also told DuBose that his heart transplant did not seem as bad compared to what he went through with the dialysis and what he had read about patients suffering from kidney failure. He motioned to DuBose’s arm, which bore scars from the dialysis.
Dalton said, as a matter of interest, he was talking on the phone about DuBose’s situation in the presence of Eddie Hall of Ocala, Fla., and he immediately pulled out $100 and gave to Dalton for DuBose’s fund. Hall had never even met DuBose but just hearing about his cause, spurred him to make an instant donation, said Dalton.
“There’s no greater gift than to be able to give,” said Dalton.
Stripling and Dalton hope that their gifts will encourage others in the community to donate to DuBose’s fund, as well.
DuBose’s smile seemed to stay on his face throughout the entire presentation and at the end his only comment was what seemed a very heartfelt — “Wow.”
Wal-Mart associates have formed a committee to help DuBose raise the $10,000 for the kidney transplant. In June, they held a carwash in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, next to the garden center, and plan to have another one on Saturday, July 19, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
They have also set up an account in DuBose’s name at the SunTrust branch, inside the store, where donations can be made.
http://www.moultrieobserver.com/local/local_story_183225423.html
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